Falling for the First Time
by MaryJaney
Summary: [AU] T.K. has moved in with Yamato and his father and will do anything he can to get Kari, his childhood best friend. After all, it's destiny, even if she is already with Davis. [takari/daikari]


"Takeru, are you even listening to me?"

I turned my head away from the cupboards to face my mother. "Yeah. You were saying you think you need some more space?"

"No. I think it's time for a change."

"What kind of change?" I asked, stuffing a bagel in my mouth and taking a seat at the kitchen table.

That's when she took my hand and looked into my eyes. Her ocean blue eyes had a look of such concern, such regret. She was running her fingers through her hair - a nervous habit. I realised then that she was going to say something serious. I leaned forward and shrugged.

"Well, what is it?"

"I'm not quite sure how to say it…"

"Just say it. Come on, Mom, it's me."

"I … I got promoted."

I stood up and waved my arms in the air with excitement. "Mom!" I leaned over the table to hug her. "That's great news! I bet that Siru bitch got fired. I told you she sucked! She is a freaking secretary and she can't even do that right."

"She is an administrative assistant, Takeru, and that's not what I was promoted to."

"Well are you getting a raise?"

"Would you let me finish?" she snapped, standing up to rub something off my cheek. "Yes, I will be getting a raise. But for this promotion, I have to move away."

My heart literally stopped. "We're moving?"

"No, honey." She looked into my eyes and sheepishly smiled. "I am moving."

And then my heart literally broke.

"What!"

Mom apologized to me a few times and broke down by dropping her head into her arms. "Takeru, I love you so much, but I need this job to pay off the rest of the mortgage."

"But …"

"I know it doesn't make sense now, but this will be good for you." She was sniffling now. "I am always worried that you have grown too dependant on me. A man can't have his mother forever - he needs to rely on himself."

I didn't want to start crying, because if I did, she would just lose it.

But fuck it was hard not to.

"So what about the house? Am I supposed to just stay here?"

"No. I was thinking … thinking about renting it out to some students. The house is right by the University, so I'm more than sure I will find someone before next Thursday."

"Next Thursday? That's in nine days!"

She untied her apron and shook her head. "I know, Takeru. I should have told you sooner."

"Told me sooner? How long have you known?"

"Just over a week. I wanted to wait until I had everything almost figured out before I told you." Wiping a tear away with her napkin, she added, "This will be good for us. It will just be until Christmas - that's four months away. We can do it. I need this money so bad, honey."

It was starting to get really hard to not tear up. Maybe shock had something to do with it, because I couldn't imagine living life without my mom. She was everything to me, as corny as that sounds. I had grown up with her and only her. We did everything together. She wasn't just my mom …

She was my best friend.

As soon as that entered my mind, I couldn't control my emotions anymore.

I started bawling my fucking eyes out.

"Oh, sweetheart!" Mom cried, rushing over to hold me. "I know it will be hard at first. But it's only four months. I am so sorry, but I have to do this."

I tried to ask her something, but I was sobbing so much that I couldn't let it out. She guided me to the couch so I could cry on her shoulder.

She wrapped her arms around me and began humming. When Mom starts humming, it always calms me down. I can't really explain it … there is just something about her that always relaxes me.

"Where am I gonna stay?" I finally asked when I settled.

"You're going to stay with your father and Yamato."

Any relaxed or calm feeling I felt was gone. "Are you serious? You're making me stay with them!"

"Takeru, I know how this must feel. But it's only for the summer."

My father and I didn't have the best relationship. In fact, I hadn't even seen him in about five years. My parents had a very messy divorce. I never really knew exactly what happened, but it didn't seem pretty. It ended up with my mom taking me and my father taking Yamato, my older brother.

Mom and I moved away to a different city. Every holiday, Yamato and my father would come see us. Over the years, it slowly started to become only Christmas, and eventually, they stopped coming. I was eleven-years-old when they didn't show up the first time.

The douchebags never even sent me a card. I was a kid, for fuck sakes.

"It will be good for you to get reacquainted with them."

"How? How is the world could it be good? They hate me. They don't want anything to do with me."

"Don't say that!" She pointed a finger at me. "They love you. I called your dad and asked him, and he was more than okay with it."

"But …"

She softly stroked my hair as I whimpered. "We have nine more days together," she whispered in my ear. "Let's make the most of it."

XxX

The memory of my mother slipped my mind as I remembered I was standing at the front door. I started thinking about the way Mom said goodbye to me, but I shook my head. I couldn't think about that right now. I was about to see my deadbeat father for the first time in years. If I was crying, he would probably laugh in my face.

My arm felt so weak as I lifted it up to knock on the door (which majorly needed a paint job, by the way), and I looked to the front window to see a fucking black cat stare at me.

I hate cats.

When the door opened, I could hardly believe it. Yamato was thirteen the last time I had seen him. Now, at nineteen, he looked so grown up.

"T.K.!" he shouted, grabbing me to hug me. "Oh my god, you look great! Filled out nicely, I see."

I faked a smile. "Oh, thanks. You too."

"Let me get your bags."

I walked into the house with him and looked around. I had lived in the house when my parents were still together - I could never for the life of me remember much about it, but now that I was inside, it was coming back to me.

And, dear lord, they did not know how to keep the house together. It was a mess.

The stupid black cat came over to me and rubbed against my leg. I cringed as I followed Yamato to what I figured was my bedroom.

"So, what's new?" he asked, tossing my bag onto my bed and not even bothering to be careful with it.

I shrugged. "Oh, nothing much."

To be honest, I was really pissed. The town Yamato and my father lived in was a fairly small town. I remember playing with other children, and for some reason, everyone knew each other. My mom and I had moved to Tokyo, the capital, and a much bigger city.

What the fuck was I supposed to do with my free time now?

"Everyone can't wait to see you," Yamato was saying as I wandered aimlessly around the dump. "They all remember you as this little chubby kid."

"Yeah."

The kitchen - oh my god the kitchen - was a disaster. I didn't want to be rude, but I couldn't even focus on Yamato anymore. There were mountains of dishes in the sink, on the counter, in the living room, and even a fork on the floor. Why could there possibly be a fork on the floor?

The fridge and oven were covered in odd food stains. Have these people ever heard of a dish cloth?

I began emptying the sink so I could fill it up with soapy water. I then noticed there was no dish soap.

"Do you guys know how to clean?" I sassily asked. I didn't mean for it to come out in a mean way, but I couldn't help it.

"What?"

I rolled my eyes. "Never mind."

"So, what do you wanna do before school starts?" He pulled out a small notebook. "I made a list. We can go to the beach, there is a party on Saturday night, and-"

"A party?" I chuckled to myself and sarcastically added, "Yeah, okay."

Yamato stared at me with those cold, blue eyes. They looked so concerned. At that moment, he looked so much like Mom, I wanted to cry. She hadn't been gone more than an hour, and I missed her so much already.

"Listen, T.K.," he began, "I was so fucking excited for you to move here, but that was before I knew you had become such an asshole."

"An asshole?" I could have laughed again. "How am I being an asshole?"

"Jesus Christ, you walk in here, tell me I'm a slob and don't even ask anything about me or Dad or our friends."

"Oh, because you really care about what I'm up to."

"Yeah! I do!"

I shook my head and sat onto the floral pattern couch I swear was straight from the 1970's. "That's why you call me all the time and come see us every year for Christmas, right? Because you care about me?"

Yamato sighed. "I didn't know my little brother is such a dramatic, emo kid. Boo-hoo, we can't go see you on Christmas because Mom is fucking insane."

"Hey!" I cried, standing up to defend myself. "Don't ever say that about Mom!"

"Look, don't get your panties in a twist. There are two sides to every story, T.K. I'm not trying to say me and Dad never did anything wrong, but you were too young to know. I've really missed you and couldn't wait to see you. I understand you might be mad. That was years ago; we can't do anything about it now. The only thing we can do is get over it and rebuild our relationship."

As mad as I was, a little part of me knew he was being reasonable. It was true - there was nothing we could do about it now.

"Where is our father?"

"Our father? You know, you are allowed to call him Dad. He is working."

"Working? He couldn't get the day off?"

Yamato shrugged and flicked his blond hair away from his eyes. "He works all the time. He's got a right demanding job."

"Can you take me to the store?" I asked, feeling the need to apologize but my pride was disagreeing.

"Sure, buddy."

XxX

The ride there was awful. Yamato only talked about the kids he grew up with. Sure, I had hung out with them too, but I couldn't really remember them. I was so young when I left.

While searching for dish soap, Yamato had wandered off somewhere else. I was comparing two different brands when I heard,

"T.K.? Is that you?"

T.K. wasn't something people usually called me. It was a name Yamato gave me when I was little, and I wasn't exactly comfortable with people calling me it. But when I heard this voice, I didn't care at all if she was calling me T.K. or asshole.

And when I looked over, I swear I had an instant hard-on. This girl … was gorgeous. She had short brown hair that was tucked behind her ears. Her eyes were so … innocent. Everything about her was so majestic, like the world would stop spinning for her. I can't explain it. She was so beautiful.

And when she smiled, oh my god, I swear it made me choke.

"I knew it was you!" she claimed, running up to hug me.

I was too busy being in disbelief that this girl was hugging me to even respond.

"You look so much like Yamato now, I knew that had to be you." She let go and tilted her head at me. "Do you remember me?"

I thought I would certainly remember a girl this pretty, but in all honesty, I couldn't.

She laughed. "T.K.! It's me, Hikari Yagami. Kari."

Kari, Kari, Kari …

And then I remembered.

Kari and I were kind of friends. Her older brother Taichi and Yamato were best friends, so anytime Taichi came over, Kari would come, too. She was cute as a kid, but man, did she ever look good now.

"Kari!" I said, just so I could hug her again. "I can't believe it - you're all grown up!"

She nodded. "It's been a long time. Everyone is really excited you're moving back. It's a big deal in this town! You're famous."

I let out a sheepish laugh. "Well, I wouldn't say that."

"God, you look so good," she complimented, looking me up and down. "I can't believe it. You're even better looking than Yamato!"

Before she could say anything else, a boy began calling her name and ran up to her. He looked like a huge dofus. He had reddish hair that needed a good comb or two through it. He was wearing a soccer uniform and, I gotta tell you, I wasn't impressed.

"Hey, is this T.K.?" he asked her.

"Yup! T.K., this is Daisuke, my good friend."

"Daisuke?"

"Davis," he corrected, holding out his hand to shake mine. "Great to meet you. You're all anyone can talk about around here."

I was trying so hard to hide my disappointment. Was this jerk-off Kari's boyfriend?

"Yeah, well, here I am," I bluntly replied.

"Anyway, we gotta get going," Kari said. "You're gonna be at Sora's party Saturday, right?"

Even though I didn't know who the fuck Sora was, I replied, "Absolutely! See you guys then!"

As they walked to the cash registers, I returned to the dish soap, but snuck a few more glances at Kari. It was just unbelievable how gorgeous she was. I wasn't sure who this Davis guy was, but he could have been in the way of something that was destiny.

"T.K.!"

I looked over at Yamato.

"Can you hurry the fuck up? How long does it take to buy soap?"


End file.
